The beautyblender

There are two products, that I value more than others and those are the products, that I use to conceal my dark circles under eyes. Those eyebags may come handy on Halloween, but in every day life it’s pretty cool not to look tired. Concealing your dark circles makes the whole face look brighter, younger and healthier.

In this post I will show you how to conceal dark circles and I’ll give you some tips on using concealer on your eyes – hopefully you’ll learn something new here!

Before going to the tutorial – I need to go through some important things. The ABC of concealing dark circles:

A. Don’t forget to add concealer in the area shown in the photo. That is usually a very dark area (if not the darkest!), so make sure to bring your concealer all the way up.

B. This is the obvious problem area, that we are concealing. The dark circles. Here is where you apply most of the product. But you already knew this, if you have any problems with eye bags ’cause they create this shape (don’t worry, I know they’re chanel).

C. But! What’s important here, is that you blend the concealer around (like shown in the photo), so that the line between your foundation and concealer isn’t visible. Don’t apply a ton of product to these little dots, but use what you already have (photo 2) and blend the edges. Make sure not to bring it too low – the idea is not to make your cheeks slump, which will happen if you bring the concealer too low in a V-shape (a mistake, that always caughts my eyes).

Then to the actual tutorial – here is how I currently hide my dark circles:

First I use a darker peachy shade. I make sure to follow my rules and I bring it on my inner corner as well to hide that dark area there. This colour is purely to neutralize the blue and hide that darkness, so it doesn’t need to be blended around. Actually you want to keep this colour right where it belongs and pat it on. In other words – don’t follow the C-rule here.

2. Already looking better, the blue/dark is not that visible anymore. But we need to add more coverage and brighten this up so, let’s keep going.

3. Then I use a lighter concealer shade to give my dark circles even more coverage AND to brighten everything up. Here those ABC -rules come handy.

4. This may be optional, if your skin is dry and you feel like your concealer stays in place, but finally I set my concealer using a powder. I actually like to use a powder, that is also a concealer and offers that extra coverage. Then I’m all done!

Before after photo from when I was a brunette. I wanted to add these here, ’cause I really captured the difference that concealer makes! I think here I only used NARS Vanilla, but I layered it a bit. Nowadays I prefer using something peachy first and then a light concealer.

These are the products, that I use and feel like can’t live without:

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NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer * in two shades: Custard (a darker peachy shade) and Vanilla (a bit lighter than my skintone). This concealer is creamy, easy to blend and it has an amazing coverage.

Everyday Minerals Multitasking Concealer A mineral powder concealer. This reflects light beautifully and I also like to use this to highlight my face. There’s no shimmer on it or anything, it’s just a light-reflecting powder with the perfect shade for my complexion.

Beautyblender * I apply my concealer always with this. I think it’s the best tool for this task. It’s also a winner for foundation and for powder too. Honestly, if you haven’t tried this magical makeup sponge yet, I urge you to.

Morphe brush M438I apply the powder with this. It’s just the perfect shape for my eyes and the bristles are soft, so it’s gentle for my eye area.

+ Orange lipstick?

Sometimes, when my dark circles are super dark and super blue, I use a bit of orange lipstick under my concealer. Lipstick is great for dark circles – I recommend something, that’s not matte, so you get that creamy and nourishing feel on your skin. It’s great, if your skin is dry and you don’t want to add a ton of product under your eyes. With lipstick you need the tiniest amount, so you get a thin layer. If I do this, my combo is orange lipstick + NARS Vanilla on top.

A foundation, that costs 50 euros doesn’t get bought straight away – instead it causes my eyes to almost burst out of their sockets and my skin to turn to goosebumps.

Except for now, of course, that I’ve bought it.

And now that I think about it, it’s not that expensive. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to understand that ‘expensive’ things can actually be cheaper in the long run.

I had heard about Estee Lauder’s Double Wear Foundation several times. I had read blog posts, seen reviews and recommendations, but somehow (okay, not somehow, strictly because of the price tag) I had ignored them. Until I tried it. It could have been, that because I know that 30€ foundation is better than 10€ foundation, I was curious, if the same applied to that 50€ foundation.

Let me tell you: it does. Estee Lauder’s Double Wear foundation is phenomenal. The packaging is absolutely beautiful, the texture of the foundation is remarkable and the lasting power of it is out of this world. It’s also full-coverage so when I need a perfect canvas for my makeup and I need it to last all day and evening, I grab this foundation.

I’ve read some really long reviews of this foundation, but I wanted to keep this simple: tell you that it’s easy to apply, it lasts super long, it gives the perfect coverage and it leaves quite a matte finish. I still powder it though to lock it in place.

I always apply the foundation with a damp beautyblender, just because the consistency is a bit thick and it dries quite quickly. On my combination skin it’s nothing crazy, but I would imagine that on a normal or dry skin it’s a different story. So a damp beautyblender is a great way to apply it, to get thin layers and to make it go on smoothly.

My shade in Double Wear is 1N2 Ecru, which is considered neutral. I had some trouble finding the perfect match, but then I did some research on the colors. In Double Wear, neutral colors are quite peachy, so if you’re pale, but yellow-toned, you may find your match in the neutral section. Here I found helpful swatches, where you can see clearly the colors sorted in cool, neutral and warm sections. As you can see Ecru is the second lightest color in the neutrals.

Before and after photos with Estee Lauder’s Double Wear foundation in shade Ecru. It covers extremely well. (You can still see some texture and bumps, but no foundation is gonna hide that, that’s just a problem with having acne.)

Unfortunately, there is one downside to this foundation. I hate to admit this, but it breaks me out. Every time. It lasts so damn well I’m not surprised though. It’s a bit of work to remove the foundation from my face and after I’ve removed it, some of my pimples have become irritated and red. They always calm down after a day or two though, so I don’t worry about it too much. I don’t use this foundation very often, only on special occasions so it doesn’t straight up cause me acne. I know people that use this with no problem with their skin, so I don’t think it’s a very common problem either. And who knows, maybe my skin tolerates this better once I’ve gotten rid of the acne.

Update 16.3.18: Now that my skin has recovered from acne and I only have acne scarring, this foundation works even better for me. It doesn’t break me out anymore, like it did when my acne was active. I’ve actually been using this more and more now and for any photoshoot it’s a must. It still takes some patience to get it off my face, but with an oil makeup remover and patience, it doesn’t irritate the skin.

Oh, and if you were wondering, the foundation costs about 50 euros in stores here in Finland. But I usually buy it in a cheaper price for example from lookfantastic where it’s 37, 95€.